The life of a scuba instructor on the GBR

 In my job as scuba instructor on Seastar I get to go out to the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) almost every day. Off course that is great and I’m enjoying every minute of it. And yes, you can already feel it coming there is a but. The only thing I do is introductory dives with first time divers. I’m especially fond of Chinese or Indian guests who can’t swim, but all sign up for scuba. They’re not comfortable on top of the water let alone under the water. And most Chinese guests can hardly understand me or have trouble following instructions. I absolutely love those days (these last sentences are covered with sarcasm if you haven’t understood that already). But sometimes the day is just perfect and I get reminded why I love this job and diving so much.

Last Thursday I had only one person sighed up for scuba. He was absolutely perfect in the water. It was like having a certified divers with me. To be honest, I’ve seen certified divers that weren’t even close to this guy’s skills in the water. We did the first dive at Mickelmas Cay, which was nice but nothing special. And a second dive at Hastings reef. This dive was off the hook. It is by far the most enjoyable and one of the best dives I’ve done in Australia.

It was a calm day and the visibility was endless. We slowly went down the mooring line to a sandy patch in around 8 meters of water. We swam by this huge anemone occupied by some orange anemone fish. I come her more often to show my students and then turn back to go a shallow area called the ‘fish bowl’. Not today. I spotted a narrow trench and decided to check it out. It turned out to be a wicked swim through. High walls on either side covered in lunar and plate corals. The soft elephant ear coral lined the edges at the top. It was so narrow I could barely fit through. My student swam through like a seasoned pro and absolutely loved it. The trench led to a wall an about 15 meter high wall which we followed for a while.
Once in a while I turned on my back to looked up to just marvel at the site of a big rock outcropping sticking out above us. The sun beating down on the clear light blue water, showing the silhouette of feather stars and sea fans.
The wall ran wasn’t straight. It ran in and out. Creating little grottos and dead end trenches. The ever colorful parrot fish, bird wrasse and angel fish patrolling there territories. Butterfly fish and foxface rabbit fish cruising the reef in pairs as couples in love strolling through a beautiful park. The bigger sweet lips and red bass hiding underneath big plate corals, looking at us wearily.

I can go on for pages and pages using adjective after adjective and still not capture the beauty and serenity that emits from the reef. You’re in wonderland and in that moment there is nothing else in the world but you and a weightless world of unparalleled diversity, ingenuity and wonder. It was a short dive but absolutely amazing. More please…